


and there we stood

by thecoilsofnikolatesla



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: First Kiss, Home, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-19
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-07-16 02:01:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7247641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecoilsofnikolatesla/pseuds/thecoilsofnikolatesla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>home has always been a complicated for the sole survivor, before and after the war. maybe home can be more than a location. maybe family is more than just four walls and a roof. all he knows is it's easier to find when you have someone to share it with. in either case steve had forgotten it was christmas and that was something of a problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and there we stood

"Merry Christmas."

"What?"

Steve yanked his attention away from the sky when the accented voice piped up. His eyes traced down the world’s scope to the world itself to the synth standing next to him in the doorway. The morning breeze cut into him atop his Diamond City home (home? Could this really be home?), but the sun was just coming up and warming them both, banishing the chills he’d worked up getting the new house ready for living in. 

Steve exhaled, at peace, eyes locking on the profile beside him, but Nick seemed to have his on the grouping of life below. The detective was bathed in the pinks and golds of the morning, light illuminating the features that were usually hidden by the shadow cast by his hat. Steve couldn't help but be a little starstruck for the 805th time he looked at him. Just like the first and every time after that.

(Face cast in shadows, bright eyes peeking out from his hat brim as smoke billowed around his face and he cracked a wise line; the focus of the world in gentle morning light, eyes seeking the good even now in this fallen angel's town, looking at Steve like he meant something.)

"I said Merry Christmas," Nick breathed in response, pointing his skeletal hand at the city. Steve followed his gesture and looked down at the Diamond (he couldn't bring himself to call it a city outside of its title, really) and saw it dotted in small red and green and blue lights, Christmas trees all around the shops. Even the noodle stand was decorated, he noted with a smile. The guards still looked just as grumpy as before, and the shopkeepers were still doggedly trying to sell their wares, but something about the lights put a little magic between the stalls.

"I wasn't even counting down to it," Steve said, gaze returning to the detective dappled in morning light next to him. (A better view than the Christmas lights.)

Nick gave a short but true laugh, turning to meet Steve's gaze. "Honestly, me neither. How ‘bout we forget this year’s gift exchange?"

A smile flitted across Steve's features. "Deal."

Nick smiled back in response, all the words he needed. For a moment it was just the two of them smiling at each other and the city below going about its business while the world woke up. Light filtered gently through the stands. It was right.

It was moments like these where Steve wanted to trace his fingers along the detective's metal jaw and kiss him and make his bright eyes like sunshine flutter shut, and that was a horrible, horrible thing. Moments like these he wanted nothing more than to feel Nick firm and solid against him, holding him too, hopefully content. Moments he -- sometimes -- just barely resisted. 

His thoughts must have shown on his face, because Nick's expression had just shifted from a gentle smile to something else that Steve couldn't quite place. His eyes wandered down to somewhere around Steve's collarbone. That scared him. 

"Nick," Steve breathed. Nick lifted his eyes to meet Steve's again, radiant yellow to dark brown, to recognize he'd gotten the synth's attention. "I..." he tried again, but something like fear caught hard and tight in his throat and his eyes fell to the floor. 

This was a horrible idea. This was, arguably, the worst idea he’d had since he’d entered the military.

"Steve." 

The man's eyes stayed resolutely on the floor. Two fingers slipped under his chin and lifted his face up just enough to look into Nick's eyes, those eyes that bore right into him, those eyes that stretched back like the dark of the night. He could see that Nick looked pensive, biting his lip with the expression he usually had when he was trying to size up a case after a client had just given him the details.

(Steve loved that expression too. Oh, hell.)

After a moment his hand moved to caress Steve's cheek, gently. He was barely pursing his lips now, clearly still in thought, but eyes back in focus.

"What are you doing?" Steve asked.

Nick leaned in, their faces mere inches from each other. Steve was hardly breathing. 

"Gift exchange," he said simply.

And then he closed the gap between them and kissed Steve softly.

If Steve had been steady on his feet before, the world had suddenly disappeared from beneath him and fallen away as Nick's chilled but gentle lips pressed against his. He'd dreamed about this moment time after time when the world was fading away to sleep. He'd only prayed to a god he didn't believe in for this to happen, as corny as that was. Nick Valentine was the closest thing Steve had to safety and comfort and love, definitely love, so much love that Steve could feel it thumping in his chest with each heartbeat.

Nick's pulled back questioningly and that broke his shock; suddenly Steve was pressing him against the side of the doorframe, pulling him in, doing anything to get Nick as close as he possibly could. The kiss began with lips parted now and Steve could actually taste Nick. Actually for real taste him. A strangled whine escaped Steve and he felt Nick’s aluminum chuckle vibrate along his teeth.

(The gentle twang of the scotch he'd downed earlier in the attempts he made to look more human, the constant backdrop of cigarette smoke. Something gently metallic. Something like home.)

The human had to pull back to breathe. Nick's metal fingers traced his jaw as Steve regained his breath, dancing gently along the stubble there, eyes scanning Steve's face for signs. (The only signs he'd find were the dark pink hue Steve's lips had taken on and the scattered dusting of a blush on his face.)

"What a world," Nick said gently, eyes adoring as he traced a thumb down Steve's lower lip.

"What a. What a you," Steve managed in response. Nick stared for a second before bursting with genuine laughter, echoing softly along the rooftops above the Diamond. Steve, however, didn't have the mind to be embarrassed; Nick Valentine had just kissed him and that was all that mattered. 

The detective tittered as Steve peppered his face with kisses and eyelashes brushed over his features. Nick buried his face in his chest before he could keep going, arms tight and secure around his waist, and Steve rested his chin on his hat and he never wanted to leave that moment. (He wanted to frame it and put it in his house, or give it to Amari so he could relive it forever.)

Maybe that second idea would work. Nick might tut in disapproval though, and that made Steve smile all over again, kissing the top of the hat.

"Doll," Nick said after a bit.

“Yes?” Steve asked, heart fluttering at the pet name, opening his eyes. He felt Nick pull back and he lifted his head to look at him. This time Nick was calmer, face more serious. Almost perturbed. Thin metal fingers had tightened on Steve’s arm. His smile faded, just a bit, at the sight.

"Are you sure you want... this, you want me."

His heart all but stopped. Of course he wanted Nick, probably had since the first real conversation they’d shared. No question. Steve tried to convey this in his eyes, his surety, but again Nick was hardly meeting his, obvious nerves in his voice.

"I just wanna be sure. You know, not... force you into anything, or --"

Detective Valentine barely got the words out before Steve was kissing him again. The gentle smile that tugged on the synth’s lips pulled one from Steve in earnest, and he pulled back to lace his fingers between Nick’s metal ones and pull him back into the house. There was so much to do already and the first was dragging Nick to see the lights.

(Home. Maybe, after all, this could be home.)

**Author's Note:**

> i am aware my sole survivor's name is steve rogers and the irony has not escaped me it is COMPLICATED.


End file.
